Sheet handling mechanisms



Oct. 15, 1968 c. c. PUCKETTE ET AL 3,405,936

SHEET HANDLING MECHANI SMS Filed FebJlS, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 I? H B2 0 I 8 5 I40 Bjfilcu/mo 521x222; mm

Attorneys Oct. 15, 1968 c. c. PUCKETTE ET AL 3,405,936

SHEET HANDLING MECHANISMS Filed Feb. 15, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inventors.-

cHARLEs QTUCKETTE I40 3 RmuARD E QALDh/IN y h akz mm Attorney 8 Oct. 15, 1968 c Q PUCKETTE ET AL 3,405,936

SHEET HANDLING MECHANISMS Filed Feb. 15, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Inventor's: H ARLEs QPueKETTE RIQHARD E. BALI) WIN ma #1 MM Attorneys Oct. 15, 1968 c. c. PUCKETTE ET AL 3,405,936

SHEET HANDLING MECHANISMS Filed Feb. 15, 1967 4 Sheets-$heet 4 Inventors: cumuzs c. 9ucKErr'E Rum-M90 E- 'Bnmww Mm eek Attorney 8 United States Patent,

3,405,936 SHEET HANDLING MECHANISMS Charles C. Puckette, Enfield, and Richard E. Baldwin, Coulsdon, England, assignors to English Numbering Machines Limited, Middlesex, England, a British company Filed Feb. 15, 1967, Ser. No. 616,371 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Mar. 2, 1966, 9,072/ 66 3 Claims. (Cl. 271--19) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention discloses a mechanism for forming a bulge in the uppermost sheet of a pile of flexible sheets, the mechanism including means for straightening the next following sheet if accidentally a bulge is formed therein during the formation of the bulge in the uppermost sheet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to sheet handling mechanisms for forming a bulge in the uppermost sheet of a pile of flexible sheets. The pile of sheets may be formed by the sheets of a book.

Such mechanisms may be employed in printing machines, such as cheque book printing or overprinting machines, and in pile separation devices, in which an uppermost sheet is formed with a bulge to facilitate deflection or removal of this sheet from the underlying sheets of the pile. Many devices for bulging the uppermost sheet of a pile of sheets are known per se.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It has been found that with conventional bulging mech anisms the tendency exists that not only the uppermost sheet is bulged but that also one or more of the next following sheets is bulged which interferes with the smooth working of the conventional bulging mechanisms which should bulge only the uppermost sheet in each case.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide means for straightening the sheet or sheets following the uppermost sheet of a pile if such following sheet or sheets have unintentionally been bulged.

It is another object of the invention to provide means for straightening any bulged sheet following the uppermost sheet before the completion of the bulge in the uppermost sheet has been effected.

To this end the invention provides means for temporarily and partly reversing the formation of a bulge in the uppermost sheet and/or for temporarily relieving the pressure exerted against the uppermost sheet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of example:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration showing the operation of a paper handling mechanism;

FIG. 2 shows a side view of parts of a paper handling mechanism embodying the present invention;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are side views corresponding to FIG. 2 but with parts of the mechanism omitted;

3,405,936 Patented Oct. 15, 1968 FIG. 5 illustrates a side view of a detail of the mechanism of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 illustrates a drive for the mechanism of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 7 illustrates a side view of a cam and lever arrangement of the mechanism.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 1, a paper handling mechanism for forming a bulge in the uppermost leaf 1 of a book 2 has a support plate 3 which is pivotable about a pivot 5 and urged in an anti-clockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 1, about the pivot 5 in the direction of the arrow A by a spring 21 so that one end of the book 2 is pressed against a fixed abutment 7.

A wiper 8 is resiliently urged downwardly in the direction of the arrow B1 against the uppermost leaf 1 by a spring 22 and is movable laterally in the direction of the arrow C towards a clamping member 10, which is resiliently urged downwardly in the direction of the arrow B2 against the uppermost leaf 1 by a spring 23 but which is not movable laterally. In this way, the uppermost leaf 1 is bulged as shown in FIG. 1 to facilitate the entry of a deflector member (not shown) between the uppermost leaf 1 and the underlying leaves of the book 2 prior to deflecting the uppermost leaf 1 away from the rest of the leaves of the book 2.

When the bulge is thus formed in the uppermost leaf 1, it sometimes happens that the next leaf of the book, indicated by reference numeral 11 in FIG. 1, is also caused to bulge, which is undesirable since the bulging leaf 11 may be deflected together with the uppermost leaf 1 or may be damaged as the deflecting member passes beneath the uppermost leaf 1 to enter the bulge.

The leaf 11, which is disposed between the uppermost leaf 1 and a third leaf 12 of the book 2, is more readily able to slide into a straightened condition than the uppermost leaf 1, which is contacted by the wiper 8, since there is greater friction between the wiper 8 and the uppermost leaf 1 than between the leaf 11 and the leaves 1 and 12. It has been found that the leaf 11 can be caused to straighten by a temporary reversal of the direction of lateral movement of the wiper 8, or by a temporary reduction of the pressure exerted by the wiper 8 on the uppermost leaf 1, or by a combination of this reversal of movement and this reduction of pressure.

In the paper handling mechanism illustrated in FIGS. 2 to 7, a book 102 is carried on a support plate 103. As shown in FIG. 6 the support plate 103 is pivotally connected to two lever arms in the form of brackets and 176, which in turn are pivotally connected to an upright 177 provided at its upper end with clamping means in dicated generally by reference numeral 178 for clamping the spine of the book 102 on the upright 177, the support plate 103 being urged in the direction of arrow A towards a fixed abutment plate 107 by a spring 179. These parts of the mechanism are similar to corresponding parts described in greater detail in the co-pending United States patent application Serial No. 552,757 filed on May 25, 1966 of Richard E. Baldwin and reference may be had to said co-pending application for further details. In FIG. 2, a wiper pad 108 which may be made of rubber or other resilient material is shown in contact with the uppermost leaf of the book 102 and is secured by a screw 112 to a bracket 114. Two plate springs 115 and 116, together with the bracket 114, are secured by a screw 118 to a rotatable shaft 119 mounted between. two side plates 120 and 1201. The plate spring 115 resiliently urges the bracket 114 and therewith the pad 108 in an anti-clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 2, about the axis of rotation of the shaft 119 towards the book 102.

The two side plates 120 and 1201 are fixed to and jointly rotatable with a shaft 122 which is fixed to the side plates 120 and 1201. A cam follower arm 123 carrying a cam follower roller 125 is secured by screws 166 to the side plate 120. The cam follower arm 123, and therewith the side plates 120 and 1201, are urged in an anticlockwise direction about the shaft 122 by a tension spring 126 which at one end is secured to the cam follower arm 123 and at its other end is secured to an arm 128.

A second arm 1281 similar in shape to the arm 128 is provided. Both arms 128 and 1281 are secured together by pins 129 and 131, the pin 129 serving as an abutment for the free end of the spring plate 115. The arms 128 and 1281 are fixed at their lower ends, to the shaft 122 and, at their upper ends carry a clamping member formed by a resilient pad 132 of rubber or other resilient material. The pad 132 is secured to a support plate 134 which is resiliently mounted on and between the arm 128 and 1281. The shaft 122 is mounted in a frame 161 of the mechanism (see FIG. 6) and is urged by a cam and lever mechanism to press the pad 132 against the book 102. The cam and lever mechanism is shown in FIG. 7 and includes a cam 180 fixed to a cam shaft 136 and cooperating with a cam follower roller 181 carried on a lever 182 which is pivotable about a pivot pin 183 secured to the frame 161 of the mechanism. The lever 182 is urged in an anti-clockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 7, about the pivot pin 183 by a tension spring 186 anchored to the upright 177. A link 187 is pivotally connected to the lever 182 and to a lever 188 which is rigidly secured to the shaft 122. On rotation of the cam shaft 136, the cam 180 causes pivoting of the lever 182 against the action of the spring 186; the movement of the lever 182 is transmitted through the link 187 and the lever 188 to the shaft 122.

The mechanism of FIGS. 2, 6 and 7, as thus far described, is sirnilar to part of the mechanism disclosed in the aforesaid copending patent application.

The cam follower roller 125 is urged by the spring 126 against a cam 135 secured to the cam shaft 136 rotatably mounted in the frame 161. The cam shaft 136 is rotatable by a motor 1361 through a train of gear wheels generally indicated by reference numeral 1362. The cam 135 has a dwell portion 138 which is followed by a rise portion 140, which in turn is followed by a second dwell portion 141.

When the cam follower roller 125 is in contact with the uppermost portion of the cam surface of the cam 135 as shown in FIG. 2, and in unbroken lines in FIG. 3, the pad 108 is in its lowermost position shown in FIG. 2. As the cam shaft 136 is rotated by the motor 1361 in the direction of the arrow D, the cam follower roller 125 travels towards the dwell portion 138 of the cam 135. This causes the side plates 120 and 1201 to pivot in an anti-clockwise direction, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, about the shaft 122, which causes the pad 108 to move upwardly along the book 102. The position of the cam follower roller 125 when in the dwell portion 138 is shown in broken lines at 125a in FIG. 3, and the corresponding position of the lower edge of the pad 108 is indicated by reference numeral 108a. As the cam shaft 136 continues to rotate, the cam follower roller 125 leaves the dwell portion 138 and travels over the rise portion 140 of the cam 135 into the position shown in broken lines at 12511 in FIG. 3, which causes the pad 108 to reverse its direction of movement and to move downwardly along tion-shown inbroken lines at.108b. The camfollower roller then leaves the rise portion and moves downwardly into the second dwell portion 141 into the position shown in broken lines at 125a, which causes the pad 108 to again reverse its direction of movement and to move upwardly along the book 102 towards the pad 132 so that the lower edge of the pad 108 moves into its uppermost position indicated in broken lines at 108a. In FIG. 3 the broken circular lines starting at the dwell portion 138, the rise portion 140 and the second dwell portion 141 are intended to indicate the paths travelled by said three portions of the cam 135 on rotation thereof.

The cam follower roller 125 then again travels over the outermost portion of the cam 135 and the above-described cam cycle is repeated.

As shown in FIG. 2, a second cam 143 is fixed to the cam shaft 136 and has a cam surface portion 144 which, in section has the shape of a part of a circle extending over the major portion of the periphery of the cam 143, the cam surface portion 144 being supplemented by a rise portion 145. A second cam follower roller 146 co-operating with the cam 143 is carried on a second cam follower arm 147 which is rotatable about the shaft 122, and is urged in an anti-clockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 2, by a spring 148 anchored at one end to the second cam follower arm 147 and at its other end to the frame.

At its end opposite to the cam follower roller 146, the second cam follower arm 147 is formed with a bent portion 150 (see also FIG. 5 to which a bent plate 151 is secured by screws 152. When the cam follower roller travels over the rise portion of the cam 143, the second cam follower arm 147 is pivoted in a clockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 2, about the shaft 122, which causes the bent plate 151 to move into the position indicated in broken lines at 151a in FIG. 4, so that the plate 151 presses against the spring 116 the free end of which bears against a set screw 1161 screwed into the bracket 114 and reduces the pressure exerted by the pad 108 against the uppermost leaf of the book 102.

This reduction in the pressure exerted by the pad 108 occurs while the pad 108 is moving into its position 108b, and the reversal in the direction of movement of the pad 108 and the reduction of the pressure of the pad 108 ensure that if the second-uppermost leaf of the book 102 is bulged with the uppermost leaf, the second-uppermost leaf is able to straighten itself.

We claim:

1. In a mechanism of the kind comprising a support for a pile of flexible sheets, a wiper, a clamping member, means for urging said wiper and said clamping member towards said support to press against the uppermost sheet of said pile when on said support, and means for displacing, during each working stroke, said wiper towards said clamping member to form a bulge in said uppermost sheet, the improvement comprising means 135 for temporarily reversing the directon of movement of said wiper 108 during each working stroke, means 144 for temporarily reducing the pressure of said wiper 108 against said uppermost sheet, said reversing means including a cam 135 and a follower 125 arranged for co-operation with said cam, said cam having two dwell portions 138, 141 separated from each other by a rise portion 140, and further comprising a second cam 144 having a rise portion 145, a second follower 148 arranged for co-operation with said second cam, a first spring 115 urging the wiper resiliently towards said support 103, and a second spring 116 for transmitting movement from said second cam 144 through said second follower 146 to said wiper 108 against the action of said first spring 115.

2. The improvement defined in claim 1, and further comprising an abutment 1161 between said second spring 116 and said wiper 108, said abutment 1161 being carried by and adjustable relative to said wiper 108.

3,405,936 5 6 3. The improvement defined in claim 1, and further References Cited compr slng means 136, 1361 1362 for operating sa d UNITED STATES PATENTS reversing means 135 and said reducing means 144 in timed relationship to each other, said operating means 7471862 12/1903 Dexter at 271-19 comprising a rotatable shaft 136 and drive means 1361, 5 3,031,187 4/1962 Sano et 271 19 1362 for rotating said shaft, said first and second cams 135, 144 being mounted on said shaft 136 for rotation EVON BLUNK Primary Examiner therewith. R. J. HICKEY, Assistant Examiner. 

